Lack of numbers make it hard to measure prison realignment effect

CHICO — There's been much talk about the impact that prison realignment and community supervision programs are having in California, but so far in Chico there are no numbers to illustrate the impact whether good or bad.

Although the numbers are not available, the Chico Police Department is seeing an uptick in crime it thinks can be attributed to community supervisions programs that have been implemented under the plan to reduce the number of inmates in state prison, said Chico police Capt. Ford Porter.

There isn't a good way to quantify it, but there has been many internal conversations on the issue.

Lack of ways to obtain numeric data is a big issue, he said. The computers at the Police Department don't show a summary of individuals who have been arrested who are on post-release community supervision or other supervision programs. In order to get those numbers police would need to look at individual arrests, which is not easy, Porter added.

The District Attorney's Office recently told Chico police it has noticed a significant increase in violation of probation cases, Porter said.

The District Attorney's Office could not be reached for comment by Friday evening.

The Butte County Probation Department, which handles the post-release community supervision program, is currently working on collecting data associated with the program, said Steve Bordin, chief probation officer. However, based on early return data there is no substantiation that crimes are increasing because of the program.

There is good communication between all agencies on this matter, Bordin said. Concerns about this issue have not been expressed formally.

Butte County has received a lot of praise for commitment for working with "county partners and we're noted statewide for collaborative forward-thinking efforts," he said.

Correlation data was not available Friday.

Since October 2011, the Butte County Probation Department became responsible for supervising offenders who were released from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to Butte County on post-release community supervision, according Butte County's 2011 Implementation Plan.

Kim Raney, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, also thinks there's a lack of quantitative data in the issue. He told the Chico Enterprise-Record during a phone interview Wednesday. There was no money set aside to research the impact realignment will have on California.

However, research will soon be done by Stanford University that will hopefully help identify the impact it's having, he said.

The Chico Police Department is also trying to work with Chico State University to measure realignment's impact, Porter said.

Despite the lack of concrete numbers, Raney thinks there's a connection between the influx of offenders in the post-release community supervision program or other supervision programs and crime, he said.

Assembly Bill 109 is probably the biggest shift in public safety California has seen in 40 years, Raney said. The challenge he sees is that counties do not have the infrastructure or budget to handle the offenders under community supervision.

Police departments had to cut budgets and reduce police levels right at the heels of realignment, he said. Staffing is at an all time low.

"The concern is that we're on the brink of having a California criminal justice system with no justice," Raney said.

Porter said it's an increasingly frustrating time because a lack of manpower cripples the ability of the Chico Police Department to deal with the issue. The department is entirely reactionary, he added.

There relationship between crime increase and supervision programs can be seen in drug offenders who are not kept in custody, Raney said. Once they're out and they need to support their drug habit they turn to property crimes to feed that, which can also translate into an increase in violent crimes.

Butte County's Probation Department does have partnerships to help offenders obtain alcohol, drug and behavioral health services to get appropriate levels of care, Bordin said.

The Enterprise-Record previously reported that Butte County Jail has established resources for offenders on its supervision program in its day center where inmates on the program must report to.

One of the reasons for the crime spike can also be attributed to the decrease in supervision of offenders on community supervision, Porter said. Some offenders are kept under close watch, but others go unattended, which creates a different problem — offenders opt for jail time over rehab since they assume they won't be in custody for too long.

Offenders know jails are overcrowded and some inmates will be released without getting rehabilitated, he said. They spend a short time in jail and are out "well before the officer finishes writing the report."

"It's a revolving door," Porter said.

Even offenders with ankle monitoring bracelets will risk cutting them off because the consequences are minimal, Porter said.

The Butte County Sheriff's Office has previously said that any offender who is in the Alternate Custody Program instead of jail and removes their monitoring bracelet faces the same consequences if they had escaped jail.

As for the Probation Department, if an offender was to remove their GPS monitoring bracelet, all law enforcement agencies would be immediately notified, Bordin said. Once that person is located, the consequences are based on an individualized basis.

The main goal of all is public safety and that is always taken into consideration, he said.

"I believe that we will be successful over a long period of time, Bordin said.

Ultimately, Porter acknowledges that the Police Department will have to learn to adapt and establish ways to manage it, he said. "As we continue down this path, we'll have a better picture."

Reach Almendra Carpizo at 896-7760, acarpizo@chicoer, or on Twitter @almendracarpizo.